


A Dawn Swim

by silvershadowsea



Series: A Winter's Bath [2]
Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29574966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvershadowsea/pseuds/silvershadowsea
Summary: Gen convinces Sophos to take a bath. (Part 2 of a series!)
Relationships: Eugenides & Sophos (Queen's Thief)
Series: A Winter's Bath [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172753
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	A Dawn Swim

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [sachte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sachte) for the beta!!

It was the depths of winter, and it still wasn't cold enough, according to Gen. Sophos vehemently disagreed. Every morning now his breath was visible in front of his face. 

He pointed this out to Gen, who laughed at him and told him that it was practically warm out.

“I’m making this as easy for you as I can,” said Gen as they walked toward the harbor. “For one thing, in Eddis we do this at midnight, not dawn.”

Sophos looked mournfully up at the starlit sky. “Doesn’t make much difference that I can tell. It’s dark out either way.”

“It’s almost daytime! The sun will be up by the time we’re done, and you can warm up then.”

They were walking along the cobbled streets from the Attolian palace to the harbor, trailed by as few guards as Gen could get away with bringing. Not surprisingly, nobody else had wanted to come.

Gen walked with an unreasonable amount of bounce to his step, thought Sophos as he watched the other king walking jauntily along backward, explaining to Sophos exactly what they were about to do and how it was “so much easier than in Eddis.” Sophos wasn’t convinced.

“In Eddis the lake is frozen over, whereas this harbor never comes close to freezing. We’ll just jump in, climb back out, and—”

“ _Climb?_ ” said Sophos. “What do you mean, climb? I thought we were going to the beach.”

“That’s no fun. We’re jumping off a pier.”

Sophos stopped walking. “You never said anything about jumping off a pier.”

Gen grabbed Sophos’s hand and dragged him onward. “It’s too late to turn back. You promised you’d come.”

“And I’ve regretted it every moment since,” groaned Sophos.

In a moment of weakness several weeks earlier, he had admitted he wished he could have participated in the Winter’s Bath, the beloved Eddisian tradition in which children flung themselves into icy water in the middle of the night as a show of bravery. 

He wanted to have participated, past tense. It seemed like an excellent event to have completed, and to talk about with one’s friends and family years later. Gen and Helen had told him more than once about Gen’s first Bath, when he’d nearly drowned, but they spoke of it fondly, and they always managed to make it sound more fun than it probably was.

“Gen,” said Sophos, frowning, “you and Helen intentionally talked about the Bath in a way that would make me want to do it, didn’t you?”

“Oh, we would never,” said Gen, in a voice that told Sophos that they absolutely would.

People were beginning to emerge from their houses to start the day’s work. Not many of them glanced at the kings and their guards, but the ones who did recognized the king of Attolia. They stumbled into bows and curtseys, eyes wide, stammering greetings. Eugenides waved them off apologetically. 

“Come on,” said Gen, walking faster. “We’re almost there.”

He chose a small pier with only a few fishing boats tied to it and set off along it, wooden boards creaking under his feet. Sophos stood at the edge for a moment, sighed, and then followed Gen. He could see small waves splashing when he looked down through the gaps between the boards.

“Maybe we should’ve come out here at midnight after all,” called Gen from the end of the pier. He was already stripping off his tunic.

Sophos joined him and reluctantly undid the laces of his boots, then glanced back up the pier. He could see what Gen meant; the guards, standing where the pier met the dock, were already joined by several onlookers, who were craning their necks and staring at them.

“No,” said Sophos, “there would have been even more people here then, and they would have been drunk.”

The morning was crisp and cloudless, and Sophos took a moment to admire the colors of the sky and the water while he delayed the moment when he would have to take off his clothing. The sun still had not risen.

He heard a splash and turned to see that Gen had already dived into the water. He surfaced and shook the wet hair out of his eyes. “It’s refreshing!” he called up to Sophos.

Sophos gave himself one more moment to look at the beautiful sky and ignore Gen. Then he quickly stripped off most of his clothing and jumped into the water, intentionally right next to Gen, which sent an enormous splash into Gen’s face.

“That’s not _refreshing_ ,” Sophos sputtered as he came up for air, “that’s freezing!”

Gen laughed and floated on his back, arms behind his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is a lovely temperature,” he said, and closed his eyes with a contented expression on his face.

Sophos treaded water frantically, trying to stay warm. “I will never—” He sent a small splash at Gen. “—understand—” Splash. “Eddisians.” Splash. 

He heard giggles floating out over the water from the direction of the dock. It seemed that not only had the onlookers not left, they had attracted more people. The guards were managing to keep them off the pier, thankfully.

“Gen,” said Sophos, teeth chattering, “are we done yet?”

“Hm?” asked Gen, eyes still closed. He brought his head up out of the water and opened his eyes.

“ _Are we done yet?_ ” asked Sophos again, loudly.

“If you truly feel that you’ve properly appreciated the beauty of the morning and the refreshing temperature of the water, then—”

“Yes. I have. Let’s go.” He swam the few strokes back to the pier and reached up to grab it. Kicking his legs furiously, he just managed to catch the edge of the pier in one hand. By the time he’d gotten his other hand up and then pulled himself up onto the pier, with a lot of cursing about slippery algae, Gen was already up. He sat cross-legged and gazed out at the ships in the harbor, where the sun over the hills behind them was starting to gild the tips of the masts.

Shivering with cold, Sophos dragged his shirt back on. “How are you not freezing?” he grumbled.

“This isn’t cold, Sophos! Not compared to—”

Sophos rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. Nothing is cold compared to Eddis. A block of ice is warm compared to Eddis.”

A voice called out from behind them. “I certainly hope I’m not _that_ frigid.”

Sophos turned to see his wife striding out onto the dock, carrying a blanket in her arms, dressed warmly in a woolen cloak. “Helen! Good morning!” he said with a grin. “Actually, you must be quite warm.” He held out his arms and walked toward her.

“Oh, no you don’t,” said Helen, and thrust the blanket at him. “Put this on.”

He pulled the blanket tightly around his shoulders. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here. What did you think?” he asked. “I assume you saw the whole thing.”

“Yes, I did,” she said, smiling up at him as they began to walk back toward the dock. “Congratulations. I wasn’t sure you’d go through with it. Although I’m not convinced this counts as a real Winter’s Bath; the harbor isn’t frozen at all.”

“I knew you’d say that,” said Sophos glumly. “And I don’t care. I think it counts.”

She patted his shoulder. “Good for you.”

They reached the dock, where Gen waited with Irene, who had evidently ridden down with Helen. “Irene!” Sophos said in greeting. “Did you watch?”

“Yes, I did,” she replied. 

“It’s not too late, you know. You can still jump in.” He gestured to the harbor. “Water’s lovely.”

Irene arched an eyebrow. “No, it’s not. I heard you screaming.”

“You’re right,” Sophos admitted, laughing. “It’s horrible. Did you bring any more blankets?”

Gen was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, shivering slightly. “There are blankets at the palace, and the walk will warm us up. Let’s go.”

“Oh, you’re _cold_?” said Sophos gleefully. 

“I didn’t say that.”

Sophos nudged Gen’s shoulder with his own. “We can go back, if you’re cold.”

“I’m not cold.”

“Of course not.”

With Irene and Helen beside them on horseback, they began the long walk back to the palace. Sophos started to regain the feeling in his fingers and toes as they walked, and before long, he found himself thinking it hadn’t been so bad after all. Yes, the water had been cold, but he felt invigorated, and the harbor was beautiful in the early morning. He began to imagine the children joining them too, in a few years when they were old enough to swim. He turned to Irene. “What are the chances that next year—”

“Absolutely not.”


End file.
